


Adopted

by phoenixnz



Series: The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan [17]
Category: Smallville
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 15:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10902651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: Clark is suddenly afraid his mom won't be there when he gets home from school





	Adopted

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is based on a scene from Season Two: Fever. I had to think why Clark would suddenly have this fear and my guess is that around this time, Clark was told he was adopted. He would be seven years old by this time and old enough to know what adoption means.

“Clark Kent, if you don’t hurry up, you’re going to miss the bus to school.”

Martha waited a few moments, listening for the sound of footsteps as her son scrambled to get his things together. She heard various thumps and thuds, but still no little boy appearing on the stairs.

“Clark Jerome Kent! I’m not telling you again!”

Clark came running down the stairs, faster than any normal little boy should, from what Martha could tell, although he'd been told not to practice his super speed in the house.

“I don’t want to go to school,” he complained.

“You have to go,” she said, looking at her seven-year-old. She stood at the bottom of the stairs with hands on her hips. 

“But Mommy …”

“No, Clark.”

“But if I go on the bus, I’m scared you won’t be here when I come home.”

She frowned at him. Clark had the strap of his red backpack slung over one shoulder. The pack was unzipped and gaping open, his Scooby-Doo lunchbox almost falling out. He was wearing his favourite red jacket and blue jeans, the edges of a blue flannel shirt peeking out from the bottom of his jacket. 

“Honey, what are you talking about?”

Clark poked his tongue out a little as if he was considering the question.

“Well, Whitney told me that Lana’s mommy and daddy didn’t come back for her.”

Martha wondered if there was more to the story than Clark was telling her. She had no idea how old he really was when he’d been sent rocketing into space. How did she know he didn’t have some residual fears of abandonment? 

She wanted to tell him that what had happened to Lana had been a completely different story, but she didn’t want to make him worry. 

She knelt down and held him gently.

“Sweetie, Mommy’s not going anywhere. I promise, I will be right here when you come home from school.”

“With cookies?” he asked hopefully.

She grinned. Clark loved her home-baked cookies.

“Of course,” she said. 

He wrapped his little arms around her.

“I love you Mommy.”

She watched him run to the door and open it. He paused and looked at her for a moment, his bottom lip stuck out in what looked suspiciously like a pout.

“I promise,” she repeated.

He nodded and left the house, running to catch the bus. Martha watched until the yellow school bus disappeared down the road, biting her lip. 

She worked at her morning chores, but the incident bothered her. Wondering what to do, she decided to phone Nell. Since their neighbour had decided to take in her niece, the once strained relationship had changed. They would never be friends, but at least Nell was more civil. 

“I don’t know what to tell you, Martha.”

“It just seems very sudden that he’s reluctant to go to school.”

“Well, like I said, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m sorry. I have to get ready to go to the city.”

Nell had been spending a lot of time in the city lately. Martha had been talking to her mother, who seemed to know all the gossip, and it seemed Nell had been talking to Lionel Luthor about some kind of business deal. It seemed odd for Nell to even have anything to do with the Metropolis billionaire, especially after having lost his wife Lillian a few months before. 

Having got no answer out of Nell, Martha wanted to brush it off, but it still bothered her. She went out to join her husband, who was working in the barn. Since it was winter, farm chores were mostly indoors.

Jonathan was hammering in some rails guarding the stairs to the hayloft. He’d decided to turn it into a space for Clark to play in and later perhaps study in. It would give him some much needed privacy.

He stopped and looked at her.

“Everything okay, sweetheart?”

“Clark didn’t want to go to school.”

He frowned. “That’s weird. Clark loves school.”

“He seemed afraid I wouldn’t be there when he got home from school.”

“And you can’t figure out why?”

“He said something about Lana’s parents not coming back for her, but I don’t think that’s it. I asked Nell if she knew anything but she couldn’t shed any light on it either.”

He stepped down and put his tools down. 

“I guess we’ll just have to ask him,” he said. 

They waited with hot cocoa when Clark came home. Jonathan sat him down at the table.

“I thought we should have a talk. Man to man.”

Clark’s eyes widened as he stared at his father. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, son,” Jonathan said with a laugh. “You’re not in trouble. Your mom’s a little worried about you though. She said you didn’t want to go to school today. Wanna talk about it?”

“Umm …”

“Hey, kiddo, it’s okay to get scared about stuff. But if something’s bothering you, then you should talk to us about it.”

“Well, Whitney was talking about how Lana’s mom and dad went away and didn’t come back and Nell ‘dopted her and then Lana said I was ‘dopted too.”

Jonathan nodded. They’d told Clark about his adoption, knowing the subject was likely to come up in school. Kids had a way of pointing out certain things, like the fact Clark didn’t look like either of his parents. They had discussed it and told him at least the partial truth.

“So what happened to my real mom and dad?” Clark asked.

Jonathan hid the wince Clark had unwittingly caused. Martha found it a little hurtful when people in town would comment about Clark’s ‘real parents’ as if the two of them were not his ‘real’ parents because Martha hadn’t given birth to him. 

“Clark, the truth is, we don’t really know what happened to them. We just know that they loved you and wanted you to grow up with people who love you, the way your mom and I do.”

“And you’re not gonna go away and never come back?”

“Never ever,” Jonathan promised, holding up his hand in a scout’s salute. “Scout’s honour.”

Martha snorted. She’d been standing at the counter, listening. 

“Jonathan, you were never a boy scout!”

“Dad, what do I say to people when they ask?”

“You can tell them the truth,” Martha replied. “That your dad and I adopted you because we love you very much and we couldn’t love you more if you were our natural child.”

Clark got up and ran to his mother, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing his face into her. Jonathan didn’t hear what he said but got the gist of it when Martha told him she loved him. 

Jonathan took his son’s hand.

“How about you come and help me in the barn, son?”

Clark frowned. He’d been told he was too little to use his dad’s tools, but Jonathan figured this was one project they could finish together. 

He led his son out to the barn and showed him the loft.

“Wow!” Clark’s eyes lit up. “Can I play here?”

“Sure you can son. This will be your space so you can do anything you want.”

Clark practically jumped into his arms, laughing. Jonathan hugged his son. Sometimes it was just the simple things, he thought.


End file.
